Jump to content

Nice Guy Eddie

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    17426
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Nice Guy Eddie

  1. I've never understood why people fall for the line that your license will be suspended if you refuse to blow. So what. As you said, look to get an exemption for work travel. Use Uber or friends/family for the rest. And honesty, you can probably still drive in many situations and never get caught. But it's a risk. I have heard lawyers warn that blood tests can identify other substances in your blood including legal prescription drugs that could impair your driving. Not too mention less than legal substances. It's a consideration for some when requesting a blood test.
  2. In fairness he was drunk so you can't expect him to make the most rational decisions in the moment.
  3. Of course when park revenue drops and the fed govt is asked to provide more funding to keep the lights on, the MAGA business opportunists will point that it's another reason that national parks should be sold off to private interests who can better manage them. Which also means selling off to more industry interests and give the more scenic areas to billionaires.
  4. complete anecdotal evidence, but while on a recent vacation I was at a national forest during a workday. Based on accents that I heard, I would have to guess that ~50% of the visitors that morning were not Americans. My guess is that we will see the following: Trump will claim this will generate X additional dollars. He will take the estimated annual foreign park visitors and multiply that by $100 or $250. Perhaps declare a possible "F the Foreigners" check to all Americans Never discuss how total park revenue will eventually drop by a large percentage as non-Americans are staying home. Definitely ignored will be the local impact to hotels, restaurants, etc.
  5. SIAP but here is the letter that Abbott, Paxton and now the DOJ says has nothing to do with how the Texas govt redrew that maps even though that they followed it. Pure coincidence. https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/archive/2025/57372.pdf Non-lawyer but if redrawing districts, due to race, is considered unconstitutional I would assume existing districts based on race are also unconstitutional. Wouldn't the proper method be to attack the current map in court to get a judge to toss out the current maps and then create new non-racially designed maps? Obviously that could be a longer process than just breaking the law. Beg for forgiveness, not ask for permission. What's funny about the 18th district (Houston) is that I don't disagree that it long had a consistent theme that the GOP packed minorities in that district to create more GOP seats. Past Republicans weren't so brazen to go as far as disenfranchising all/most Democrat voters in Houston. Now they want to crack the districts to overwhelm central city voters with suburb or rural votes.
  6. I'm not going to lose sleep over this but another example of nationalism and a desire to kill tourism. The National Parks are substantially hiking (pun intended) entrance fees for non-Americans. https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/26/travel/us-national-park-foreign-fees-tourism-hnk Presumably the national parks will now start to ask about someone's citizenship when entering the park. Nothing is as welcoming as a park ranger asking to see your papers like some Gestapo cop. I also imagine that enforcing this policy is going to be the worst part of being a park ranger, who I would imagine are all good people. If I'm reading this right, a foreign tourist family of 4 may show up to Yellowstone expecting a $20 per person fee. Instead of the $80 fee, they will pay $480. Welcome to America.
  7. 100%. I have heard some lawyers say that if you've absolutely have had nothing to drink that they don't see a problem but other lawyers say otherwise. Personally I would respectfully decline by telling the officer that I'm happy to comply with any warrant but I'm not saying more without a lawyer present. Regardless you definitely don't go near the breath analyzers with even 1 drink in the last day. And...
  8. I'm for the next Dem President knocking down the Ballroom monstrosity and expect the same corporate donors to pay again to build something appropriate.
  9. Great point especially in that Russia already certainly dictated their terms to the US and is most likely not open to any real change including limited US/Europe enforcement of any "restriction" from Russia.
  10. I will be surprised if they openly challenge Schumer but I've heard some suspect that Schumer's apparent agreement of the retiring senators re-opening the govt, as signs that he's stepping down as leader if not retiring.
  11. I'm considering the Blink camera due to the simplicity of a battery operated camera and a relatively small monthly subscription cost. $4 for 1 camera, $11 for unlimited. Cameras are not free. I don't have a security issue but I imagine that I will mainly see cats, raccoons or possums walking around at night.
  12. If a peace deal is about to be signed, you might as well throw everything to harm Russia as much as possible in any remaining days. The number of casualties has been horrific but I'm unsure that the US has ever had such an successful war in terms of exposing and damaging an enemy without the loss of American military. Not to mention that its greatly increased the use of drones in combat that we should be able to be a leader in this technology as well.
  13. I'm far from a Cornyn fan and would crawl through broken glass to vote against him but I don't want to see Paxton be our senator. For the actual votes in the Senate, I don't think it matters much if Cornyn or Paxton win but I don't want to see Senator and Texas next to Paxton's name.
  14. Is this when they announce that her pregnancy will be 11 months so Charlie is the father.
  15. For item 4, we could see a similar playbook. Something like 5 major insurers are onboard with the new Trumpcare: UHC, Aetna, Cigna, BCBS and a new insurer that formed out of Dubai last week.
  16. Trump is rumored to be unveiling his ACA replacement strategy today. Only years behind schedule from the GOP. My guess is that he's fallen in love with the name Trump Health Savings Account so that will most certainly be included. I'm sure he's annoyed of the term ObamaCare but of course that was considered an insult by the GOP in that Obama was hijacking the healthcare system.
  17. I recall the old days when Shipley's had undocumented workers and their families living at their kitchen compound in the Heights. Late 2000s, IIRC. I think many were deported and the owners paid a large fine.
  18. Based on the world post-Trump, there is non-zero chance this guy is our future President. He has the gift of gab, and the Right could be convinced of anyone if the candidate falsely embraces Christianity and promises to punish others.
  19. bump. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/24/doge-doesnt-exist-with-eight-months-left-on-its-charter.html When asked, the WH agreed that DOGE no longer exists. Did it accomplish anything but create chaos and unnecessarily scared govt workers that they were going to be fired, if not prosecuted for fraud.
  20. Which version of camera do you have? I was noticing that Amazon has Black Friday deals with the Blink outdoor 4 cameras.
  21. Unsure this has been mentioned since 2022 but construction is finally under way for the Terry Black’s BBQ and a boutique hotel at his location on Shepherd. The old used car lots on shepherd are almost an extinct species these days.
  22. Surprising development that as the Heights/GO/Oak Forest have become almost overly expensive, it’s become much more younger overall with families with small children. The amount of strollers in GO has to be at an all time high. It’s especially concerning seeing all the strollers being pushed on Alba in rush hour now that Alba is seeing more traffic due to shepherd and Ella being so crowded for nearby commuters. I’ve always thought it was criminal how the older element in GO fought against Alba sidewalks and won that fight. Home value > safety.
  23. Still watching season 3, but I find myself hating Russell’s character more with each episode. In this season, she wants to be her own woman but has to constantly rely on her marriage for professional assistance, even though she proclaims otherwise. And she continually drags others into her chaos potentially ruining their life and career. It makes for a whirlwind of a show. not to mention that she appears to sabotage Hal at every turn.
  24. After 15+ years of wanting to repeal and replace Obamacare, the best the GOP can come up is that they want to hand the Obamacare subsidies directly to Americans and wish them luck. In theory giving consumers the ability to use the free market system to find the right options for themselves and their budget, works on paper. But it also assumes that the insurance companies are a truly competitive marketplace. Hint, they're not.
  25. Cheney went by the doctrine that if it's good for America in the short term, then there shouldn't be any restrictions. Torture, wire tapping foreign leaders, etc. Perhaps there isn't any immediate issues because you punch a smaller person and what can they do. But then they dislike and distrust you for generations. They still only work with you when they absolutely must. And even when we want to tell ourselves that we can elect someone else who won't be Cheney or Trump (or Bush), but we've taught the world that we will easily put another one of them in power again.
×
×
  • Create New...